Safety razor blade and magazine therefor



July 29, 1947. N. TESTI v 2,424,593

SAFETY RAZOR BLADE AND MAGAZINE THEBEFOR Fiie d Jan. 18, 1945 Patented July 29, 1947 SAFETY RAZOR BLADE AND MAGAZINE THEREFOR Nicholas Testi, Boston, Mass, assignor to Gillette Safety Razor Company, Boston, Mass, a corporation of Delaware Application January 18, 1945, Serial No. 573,367

4 Claims. 1

This invention relates to safety razor blades and magazines therefor.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a, new and improved blade and magazine combination that is inexpensive to manufacture and the magazine of which is convenient to fill with a supply of sharp edged blades, effective to position the blades and guard the blade edges and co-operative with the blade to accurately and positively uide its discharge therefrom in a path directly in line with its path of entry into a razor for a distance sufficient to insure delivery of the blade with its edge untouched during movement of the blade from the magazine to its shaving position in the razor.

In some prior blade-magazine combinations, the stack of blades is positioned in the magazine by two oppositely-disposed, upstanding, locating pins secured in the magazine and engaging with corresponding notches provided in opposite ends of the blades. In such constructions one of the pins, of necessity, must terminate just below the under surface of the topmost blade in the stack to permit of the endwise removal of that blade therefrom. Consequently the uppermost blade is held in alignment with the remainder of the stack by only the single pin at one end and the frictional pressure afforded by the conventional spring that urges the stack upwardly toward the top wall of the magazine. In such magazines, upon movement of the feed slide to eject a blade, the latter immediately loses contact with the said single pin and the only directional guidance therefor is supplied by the abutment of the feed slide against the end of the blade or by registration of a tongue in the slide with an aperture in the blade which in either event, at best, does not afford a positive guiding action and creates possibility of lateral displacement of the blade during the ejecting movement with the attendant possibility of jamming or damage to its edge.

The present invention contemplates a blade and magazine combination that obviates the possibility of such bias feeding of the blades and the accompanying chances of edge damage, and that utilizes in its construction but a single blade 1ocating element which serves the dual purpose of positioning the blades in the magazine and assisting in positively guiding a blade in a straightline-path during its movement from the magazine toward the razor.

These and other objects of the invention will be best understood and appreciated from the following description of a. preferred embodiment thereof selected for the purposes of illustration 2' and shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view on an enlarged scale of a razor head with the improved blade magazine connected thereto ready for a blade feeding operation;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary perspective view taken from the non-feed end of the magazine;

Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional elevation taken on the line IIIIII of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a simila view but taken on the line IVIV of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is an exploded perspective View of the component parts of the magazine and with the view of the casin taken from the feed end thereof; and

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary sectional view of the razor head shown in Fig. 1.

The invention is herein shown in its application to a blade and magazine combination for use in connection with a razor oi the stropping type, the razor, and blade and magazine combination being of the general character described in U. S. Patent No. 2,359,327, issued to Joseph Muros on October 3, 1944, although the invention is in no sense limited to that or to any specific type of blade or magazine.

The illustrated razor (Fig. 1) includes in its structure a handle I0 from the upper end of which projects a square tubular shank II, to which is connected the head frame l2 of the razor. The frame I2 is provided at opposite sides with upright members l3. These side members are roughly triangular in shape, tapering downwardly and forwardly. Between them are located transverse shafts 14, I5 and I6 (Fig. 6) and upon each of these shafts is mounted a sleeve. The rearmost shaft [4 carries a sleeve I4 which acts as a spacer between the upright members and serves to stiffen them in their position in the head. The intermediate shaft l5 carries a rotatable sleeve [5' which serves as a lower guide for the strop. The upper shaft I6 carries a sleeve I! which is extended at one side into a bladeclamping plate l8 constituting the upper element of the blade holder. The other wall of the sleeve is slotted at each end and extended to form a resilient bar or strap 19, which co-operates with the blade-clamping plate I8 to hold a blade in place. In each end of the strap is journaled a small roll 20. These rolls are arranged to fit into corresponding notches in the end edges of the blade and so to retain the blade in the holder positively against transverse movement and yieldingly against endwise movement.

Each of the side members I3 is formed into a curved stop 2| extending concentrically with the sleeve I! and overlapping the ends of the blade holder when the latter is removed from shaving position, and provided with a narrow gap that lies opposite the blade when the blade holder is in its aligned shaving position. Accordingly the used blade can. be removed and the new blade can be pushed endwise into the holder only when the holder occupies its shaving position. If it is raised above that position, the blade in the holder is positively locked against endwise displacement in either direction by the stops 2|.

The guard and blade-seat member of the razor is formed of sheet metal and is rectangular in its general contour, comprising a flat rear section 22 (Fig. 6) In front of this fiat section, the material is inclined upwardly and then forwardly and downwardly, to form the blade seat 23. Extending forwardly and downwardly from theblade seat is the guard 24 which may be of any desired construction but is herein shown in the form of a continuous bar. An intermediate flange 25 is struck out from the body of the guard member and arranged to form the rear or inner edge of an inclined guideway. The fiat section 22 is suitably secured above a plate 26 which in turn is suitably secured to the tubular shank ll of handle Ill.

The lower forward corner of the 'righthand side member I3 is seen in Fig. 6 as cut away to provide a passage 21 into the interior of the razor head and this passage is of dimensions to admit a key of the blade magazine.

The blade-clamping member of the razor is indicated generally at 28 and includes an upright portion 29 merging into a downwardly and forwardly extending portion 30 and this, in turn, merges into a hooked portion 3| which extends upwardly and rearwardly in spaced relation to the portion 30, and overhangs the same. The portions 3!] and 3| together with the opposed edge of the stationary flange 25 constitute a' guideway for the reception of a key 32 (Fig. of the magazine. The hooked portion 3| is centrally disposed and at each end thereof is provided an upwardly. and forwardly extending arm 33 (see also Fig. 1). The arms 33 are curved rearwardly above the blade seat and support a transverse blade clamping bar 34 at its opposite ends. Each of the upstanding arms 33 is provided with rearwardly extending guide arms such as 35, which slide against an end edge of the stationary guard 24. The clamping member 28 just described may be substantially identical in design and construction with the clamping member shown in the beforementioned Muros Patent No. 2,359,327 and, as disclosed in that patent, is mounted for sliding movement rearwardly and forwardly in an inclined guideway (not shown) formed in the tubular shank H. A spring (not shown) similar to the spring 29 of the above patent, normally holds the blade-clamping device in the position in which the clamping bar 34 engages the upper surface of the blade and presses upon the latter to hold it firmly upon the blade seat 23. The sharp edge of the blade then extends slightly beyond a line tangent to the guard 24 and the outer surface of the clamping bar 34. The blade is thus held securely and accurately in shaving position with the proper degree of edge exposure.

The razor and magazine herein shown are 01'- ganized to handle a flat, single-edged blade 35 herein shown as of the well-known Valet type. This blade has oppositely disposed, curved, locat ing notches 31 in its opposite ends near its back edge. The purpose of these notches, as heretofore described, is to securely but removably locate the blade between the plate l8 and the strap I9 and the corresponding, co-operating notch-engaging rollers 20 thereof. The blade is provided in its body portion with perforations shaped in accordance with the letters of the Word Valet. The notches 31 have heretofore been used also in conjunction with corresponding oppositely disposed, upstanding pins to locate a stack of blades within the magazine, one of the pins being slightly shorter than the other as described in an earlier part of this specification and, as therein noted, this construction has been unsatisfactory in that it permits of out-of-line feeding of the blades.

The blade herein shown is provided with slots 38 entering from the notches 31 into the body portion of the blade for a distance at least twice the depth of the notches. The slots 38 are formed with their side edges extending parallel to the back of the blade and of a width that is less than the diameter of the outer extremities of the notches 31.

The magazine indicated generally at 39, includes the casing 40 having the usual rectangular outline, and is designed to contain ten or twelve blades. It has a blade exit slot 4| at the upper edge of one end wall and a flat tapering key 32 projecting outwardly from the lower edge of the same end. The top of the magazine is formed by two inturned parallel spaced flanges 42 that are spanned by the feed slide 43 when it is assembled thereon as shown in Figs. 1-2. Secured in the base of the casing 40 a little to one side of the inner edge of one of the flanges 42 is an upstanding elongated positioning and guiding lug 44, the upper end of which terminates flush with the undersurface of the superposed flange 42. Lug 44 is located to the rear of the transverse center line of the casing and is relatively nearer the non-feed end than the feed end of the magazine. The ends of the lug may be rounded as shown and preferably it is of such thickness as to accommodate slots 38 of the blades with just suflicient clearance to permit straight line sliding movement of the latter therealong.

In assembling the magazine, a stack of blades 36 is placed within the casing with the slots 38 of one end embracing the lug 44 The conventional flat-leaf spring 45 is then inserted beneath the lowermost blade of the stack to elevate the stack so that the upper surface of the topmost blade is yieldingly urged into contact with the under surfaces of the top flanges 42 It will be observed from Figs. 3 and 4 that the lateral position of lug 44 with respect to the longitudinal center of casing 40 is such that when the blades are mounted thereon as above described, their cutting edges are held positively out of engagement with the inner surface of the casing.

The feed slide 43 carries a blade-engaging tongue 46 of a width which overlaps the under surfaces of top flanges 42, the tongue being spaced from the underside of the slide by a spacer 41 to form channels that slidably embrace the inner edges of flanges 42. When the slide 43 is in its extreme righthand position, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the left edge of the tongue is in end-to-end engagement with the right end of the topmost blade of the stack, and since the thickness of the tongue is less than the thickness of a blade, only one blade at a time will be engaged thereby as the feed slide is moved from its extreme righthand position leftwardly toward the razor.

In operation, after the magazine key 32 has been inserted in the passage 2'! and the magazine thereby connected with the razor as suggested by Fig. 1 and as clearly disclosed in the beforementioned lvluros patent, the feed slide 43 is moved from its extreme right-hand position toward the razor to feed the topmost blade from the stack into shaving position between plate 18 and strap i9, and incidentally in so doing ejects the used blade.

During the initial portion of this blade-feeding movement, the slot 38 co-operating with lug 44 serves to insure positive direct straight-line movement of the blade in the precise path that it is desired to have the blade enter into shaving position in the razor. Consequently the user can operate the slid during the entire feeding stroke with but casual attention thereto and yet with full assurance that the blade will be guided positively in a smooth continuous manner and without the hazard of damage to its cutting edge or possible jamming of one of its corners against the side walls of casing 4|].

From the foregoing it will be seen that lug M in combination with the slots 38 in the blades serves not only the purpose of securely but removably positioning the blades in the magazine with their delicate cutting edges in spaced relation from the inner surfaces of the casing but as well serves the purpose of positively guiding the blade during the initial portion of its movement from the magazine until its advancing edge has become introduced a sufiicient distance between the blade-holding elements of the razor to insure its continued straight-line movement therein upon the follow-through of the feed slide stroke.

Having thus disclosed my invention and described in detail an illustrative embodiment thereof, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. A blade magazine comprising a rectangular enclosure having an outlet slot in one end, a feed slide mounted on the enclosure, an upstanding elongated positioning lug located near the. opposite end of the enclosure, and having flat parallel sides, a stack of blades within the enclosure, each blade having a notch in one of its ends and a straight elongated slotentering into the body portion of the blade from said notch, said slots and said positioning lug co-operating to retain movably the blades in proper position in the magazine and serving also to guide positively the direction of endwise travel of a blade from the stack for a distance sufficient to insure its straight-line entrance into a razor when a blade is moved by the feed slide.

2. A blade magazine comprising a stack of blades and a rectangular enclosure therefor, said enclosure having a discharge opening in one end and an elongated lug having fiat parallel side faces and being located near the opposite end of the enclosure for positioning the blades with their cutting edges spaced from the inner surfaces of the enclosure, each blade composing the stack being provided with a notch in one of its ends merging into a straight elongated slot corresponding in size and shape to the horizontal contour of the lug, the longitudinal edges of said slot extending parallel to the longitudinal axis of its blade, a feed slide, and a spring co-operating with the stack and the lug for retaining the blades in elevated position on the latter, the 00- operating lug and slot formation serving also to insure proper guidance for endwise movement of a blade through said discharge opening upon operation of the feed slide.

3. An improved safety razor blade having a rectangular body portion, an unsharpened back and a beveled cutting edge portion, said body portion being provided with oppositely disposed notches in its opposite ends adjacent the back thereof, and means for guiding the blade into a razor, said means being in the form of a straight elongated slot in said body portion entering into one of said notches, said slot having edges parallel with the back of said body portion.

4. An improved safety razor blade having a rectangular body portion, an unsharpened back and a, beveled cutting edge portion, said body portion being provided with oppositely disposed notches in its opposite ends adjacent the back thereof, and means for guiding the blade into a razor, said means being in the form of a straight elongated slot in said body portion entering into one of said notches, said slot being of a width less than the Width of the outer extremities of said notch, and the longitudinal edges of said slot extending parallel with the back of said body portion.

. NICHOLAS TESTI.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,326,202 Bryan Aug. 10, 1943 2,363,908 Stampleman Nov. 28, 1944 2,309,780 Muros Feb. 2, 1943 2,357,208 Kuhnl Aug. 29, 1944 1,089,726 Sharpnack Mar. 10, 1914 1,562,896 Lish Nov. 24, 1925 

